By the numbers – Google Grant’s key numbers for Rally South Canterbury
With Hayden Paddon committed to the Australian Rally Championship this year, April’s Rally Otago provided the closest result of an NZRC round since Coromandel in August 2019 – and just like then Ben Hunt was the driver who came out on top.
However, the circumstances of these two results could not have been more contrasting, as at Coromandel Ben almost blew the victory when his Subaru struggled round the final 1.42km Dakota Drive Super Stage with fuel issues and he could only record the 4th slowest time of the 43 runners.
This saw his 26.2 second lead almost wiped out by a flying Dylan Turner, who ultimately came up just 2.5 seconds short of his first round win.
So, Otago this year was the complete opposite as Ben started Kuri Bush a miniscule 0.1 seconds behind Robbie Stokes and came out 2.8 seconds quicker to take the victory by 2.7 seconds.
But Otago was by no means a two-horse race as a new star flew out of the blocks right from the get-go in the form of Robbie’s younger brother Jack, who won his first ever NZRC stage in a category one car, and showed that was no fluke as he led the rally for the first five stages with another stage win and 3 x 2nds.
In total Jack won four stages and was only half a second away from taking the rally lead back off his brother midway through the second pass of the Berwick forestry stage on the Sunday when a stick went into the radiator of the flying Fiesta AP4 and he was forced out.
So Robbie continued to lead Ben by single seconds – in fact the biggest lead any of the three front runners had throughout the entire rally was only 10.5 seconds – as the battle of the two Skodas went right down to the wire.
With that debut stage win Jack joined some rather elite NZRC company, as the only other driver to do the same was none other than one Shane van Gisbergen at Hawkes Bay in 2023, when he won the first three stages before getting stuck off the road early in stage 4.
In Robbie’s case, and the length of time he has been running at the pointy end of NZRC rounds, Day 2 at Otago was the first time he had led an NZRC round as Jack Hawkeswood led Otago last year from Start to Finish.
Although headed off by Ben on the final stage, Robbie still took out his first ever leg win by going 7.8 seconds faster than Ben on Day 2.
BEN HUNT – TRIPLE GOLD STAR WINNER and MR CONSISTENCY:
As a three times NZ Rally Champion Ben now joins legends of our sport – Rod Millen (75,76,77), Tony Teesdale (82, 84, 87), Neil Allport (86, 89,92) and Joe McAndrew (93, 94, 96).
Bruce Herbert’s consecutive run from 2000 – 2003 has him next on Ben’s list with 4, then comes Richard Mason on 5 (2005, 06, 11, 12, 14), and then of course we have Hayden Paddon at the top on 7 (08, 09, 13, 18, 21, 22 & 23).
Of his now 12 NZRC round wins, Otago is only the second time Ben has won in the final stage – the other occasion being his first round win 12 years ago when, as I’m sure he will acknowledge, he inherited the rally lead of the 2013 Daybreaker when the gearbox locked up in the Mason Subaru mid-stage.
Ben has completed start to finish wins on almost half of his round wins – and all five were in two of his championship winning years: Canterbury, Gisborne and Coromandel in 2015 and Canterbury and South Canterbury in 2019.
And he won three rounds in both of those six round years.
However, his third Gold Star (last year) was achieved very differently as Ben and Tony didn’t win a round at all – a feat last achieved by Andrew Hawkeswood in 2017 and prior to that Sam Murray in 2007.
However, their consistency was exemplary as they recorded 3 x 2nds (Southern Lights, Daybreaker and Whangarei) 2 x 3rds (Otago & South Canterbury) and 1 x 4th (Bay of Plenty).
Perhaps a bit surprisingly, Ben’s Otago victory in April is his first NZRC Round Win in almost 3 years as he and Tony last stood on the top step of the podium at Hawkes Bay way back in July 2022.
However, of the 14 NZRC rounds held since then, they have been on the podium 9 times (4 x 2nd & 4 x 3rd) with 2 x 4ths and 1 x 5th, and just 2 DNF’s – Day One of WRC Rally NZ in 2022 and that heartbreaking stuck off the road after a spin on the penultimate stage of the 2023 South Canterbury Rally when leading Raana Horan by over half a minute.
So, Ben’s 12 wins means he now sits in sixth place on the all-time NZRC round winners’ list tied with two double champions (Robbie & Jack’s Dad) Brian Stokes (85 & 88) and Geof Argyle (98 & 99) while Tony is now tied in 5th with the great Rodger Freeth.
The current driver standings are Hayden Paddon 41, Richard Mason 28, Neil Allport 22, Joe McAndrew 18, Bruce Herbert 15 then Stokes, Argyle & Hunt on 12.
The co-drivers are John Kennard 32, Sara Mason 25, Bob Haldane 24, Rob Ryan 17 then Freeth & Rawstorn 12.
Interestingly Ben has four times as many round wins as all this year’s eight other Category One drivers combined, as only three of them have won a round so far:
Emma won Canterbury in 2016, Josh Marston won Canterbury in 2018, and Jack Hawkeswood won Otago last year.
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